After ‘surviving’ his first season at Paris Saint-Germain, all eyes are on how Luis Campos will help the French Rich Man assert his strength in Europe.
Campos started the plan by dismissing Christophe Galtier and selling Neymar, while he also did not prevent Lionel Messi from leaving.
PSG spent heavily to own Ramos.
After putting Luis Enrique on the hot seat, he made a list of a series of stars to buy in the summer transfer window. Notably, the name Goncalo Ramos has become the target that Ocampos emphasized the need to recruit.
In the context of the departure of the Messi – Neymar couple, Kylian Mbappe needs a quality striker to share the responsibility of scoring goals with him instead of taking on that role himself. That’s why Campos is determined to bring Ramos to Princes Park.
The Portuguese star moved to PSG from Benfica for a fee of 85 million euros, of which the French representative had to pay 65 million euros in advance to ensure the deal took place.
Man Utd once targeted Ramos.
The striker had an excellent season scoring 27 goals, leading the Primeira Liga in non-penalty goals. But fans only really know much about Ramos at the World Cup.
In the round of 16, Cristiano Ronaldo had to give up his starting position to this young man, and at the same time saw him score 3 goals. That performance helped Ramos become one of the hottest transfer targets in 2023.
Before PSG, Man Utd considered the possibility of recruiting the 22-year-old striker.
The Old Trafford home team had problems scoring goals as most of last season’s goals depended on Marcus Rashford, while strikers like Anthony Martial or Wout Weghorst did not meet expectations.
However, after carefully reviewing the transfer fee as well as the fierce competition from PSG, Man Utd decided to promote the Rasmus Hojlund deal instead of Goncalo Ramos.
The Portuguese striker is finding himself.
To be fair, both of these names have not yet met expectations in the new shirt. But at least Hojlund has shown some quality in terms of strength and ability to sniff out goals. The former Atalanta talent has scored 5 goals in the Champions League, while Ramos is still struggling to find a way to open up in this arena.
Returning to the domestic front, Hojlund has not been able to score or, more precisely, had a goal denied by VAR, but this comes from the significant decline of the entire Red Devils system compared to last season.
As for Ramos, he is playing in a tournament where PSG is “alone”. Since the 2017/18 season, they have only lost the Ligue 1 championship once.
Hojlund is showing progress.
And this season, PSG, despite many changes in personnel, still showed strong performances, with 7 wins and 3 draws after 11 rounds.
However, Ramos still could not assert himself here. He has only had 2 goals since the beginning of the season. According to FBRef, Ramos only made 31% of his shots on target, ranking 19th among strikers in Ligue 1.
Witnessing the lackluster performances from the star who is considered a replacement for Ronaldo, Paris Saint-Germain fans will surely be extremely disappointed. Meanwhile, Man Utd fans are probably secretly happy when the club seems to have just avoided another bombshell after Jadon Sancho or Antony.
Truong Son | 09:34 November 11, 2023
